Background
Smith, Ralph Lee was born on November 6, 1927 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Son of Hugh Harold and Barbara (Schatkin) Smith.
(This collection of traditional music for the mountain dul...)
This collection of traditional music for the mountain dulcimer seeks to reunite this beautiful instrument with the people, the music, and the world from which it came. It tells the story of the Wilderness Road, a trail through the Appalachian Mountains from Gate City, Virginia, to Fort Boonesboro, Kentucky, blazed by Daniel Boone, and links it to the history and heritage of the mountain dulcimer. Numerous photographs and maps help tell the story, and each tune in the book includes a historical anecdote describing its origin. This book is a must for anyone interested in the history of the Appalachian Mountain region and its music. The sixteen tunes in this book are written in notation and tablature for the standard three-course mountain dulcimer (without the 6 1/2 or 1 1/2 fret in the fretboard), with chord symbols and complete lyrics. A knowledge of simple chording techniques is all that is needed to play the tunes. The tunings used are Ionian (DAA), Aeolian (DAC), and Dorian (DAG).
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/078662972X/?tag=2022091-20
(This book provides 20 beautiful Anglo-American folk songs...)
This book provides 20 beautiful Anglo-American folk songs, field-collected by two remarkable real-life "song catchers," Josephine McGill and Loraine Wyman, in the Cumberland Mountains of Kentucky in 1914 and 1916. Josephine and Loraine, the latter accompanied by Howard Brockway, a composer and arranger, were among the first persons to search for folk songs in the Southern Appalachians. The musical adventurers traveled hundreds of miles on horseback and on foot through an inaccessible world to which radios, roads and cars had not yet come. They made friends in isolated log cabins, and transcribed some 200 song treasures, some of which they published in complex arrangements in books that are now out of print and rare. This book contains a selection of the songs, presented with simplified musical notation, guitar chords, and dulcimer tablature. It also includes glowing accounts of their mountain adventures, published by Josephine and Howard in long-forgotten publications; a must for all lovers of American folk music.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0786649267/?tag=2022091-20
(A first-hand report on an effort to enlarge our knowledge...)
A first-hand report on an effort to enlarge our knowledge of the dulcimer's history by searching the hills and hollers of Appalachia, looking at old instruments, and listening to the tales of old folks.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0810833786/?tag=2022091-20
Smith, Ralph Lee was born on November 6, 1927 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Son of Hugh Harold and Barbara (Schatkin) Smith.
Bachelor, Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, 1951. Master of Education, University Virginia, Charlottesville, 1987.
(This book provides 20 beautiful Anglo-American folk songs...)
(A first-hand report on an effort to enlarge our knowledge...)
(This collection of traditional music for the mountain dul...)
(Perhaps no instrument better represents the music of Appa...)
Married Betty H. Smith, September 1954 (divorced January 1963). Children: David Bruce, Robert Hugh. Married Mary Louise Hollowell, 1971 (divorced 1977).
Married Shizuko Maruyama, 1977. 1 child, Lisa Koyuki.